If you have followed NYC spray program over the last 16 years, you know that typically one borough is sprayed at a time. But on Wednesday, September 9th, a trifecta will occur: Brooklyn, Staten Island, and that rarity of occurrences, Manhattan will all be sprayed by truck with dangerous pesticides.

One alarming aspect of this occurrence is that Central Park, home to wildlife, including birds, bees, other insects, raccoons, hawks, and other species, will also be sprayed with these harmful pyrethroid pesticides.

According to the Department of Health web site, these areas will be sprayed between 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 9th and 6 a.m. Thursday, September 10th. This is a large area to subject to these dangerous pesticides. The pesticide being used is Anvil 10 + 10.

Thinking Holistically

Pest Control Chain Reaction
To treat a malaria outbreak in Borneo in the 1950s, the World Health Organization (WHO) sprayed DDT to kill mosquitoes. But the DDT also killed parasitic wasps which were controlling thatch-eating caterpillars. As a result, the thatched roofs of many homes fell down, and the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckoes, which were in turn eaten by cats. The cats perished, which led to the multiplication of rats, and then outbreaks of sylvatic plague and typhus.
To put an end to this destructive chain of events, WHO had to parachute 145,000 live cats into the area to control the rats.